Remembrance for UU Knoxville Church Shooting Victims (August 3, 2008 by Nancy Irish)
(Including readings)
We, the Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation, gather together this morning especially aware of who we are and what we stand for - for one week ago this morning, who we are and what we stand for as Unitarian Universalists came under attack in our fellow congregation in Knoxville, Tennessee. Six people are wounded and two people have died by gunshot, simply because they were Unitarian Universalists, and part of what the gunman called the “liberal movement” which he professed to hated. We gather together this morning, as do countless other UU congregations, to mourn the lives, the innocence, and the sense of safety that were lost last Sunday morning, especially for the Knoxville congregation. We also pause to feel gratitude and comfort in the outpouring of compassion and support for all those who are suffering as a result of that act of violence. Our compassion extends to Jim Adkisson, the gunman, whose own woundedness has created hell on earth for himself and others. And we gather together today also to remind ourselves who we are, so we can move forward sadly, but with ever increasing clarity and resolve.
During profound moments and in troubled times, symbolism often takes on an added dimension, like a work of art in bass relief, providing comfort and helping us to make meaning of what has transpired. Usually, we light the chalice after our regular words of introduction and welcome, signifying that our sacred hour together has begun. Our regular words of welcome and introduction to who we are seem so crucial to the message and meaning of the morning that I have moved the chalice lighting to come before our weekly words of welcome. Our radical hospitality is our sacrament. I have asked our new President of the Board of Trustees, Shirley Zimmer, to light the chalice as I read these words of Kahlil Gibran:
“Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”
As we are once again reminded, when we commit ourselves to safeguarding the rights of others, we become a lightning rod for the kind of dark energy that feeds on light. May we truly be a grounding force in the world, and absorb such hate without becoming hateful. May we have the wisdom and strength to return hate with love.
Who we are and what we stand for as Unitarian Universalists can perhaps best be summarized in our Sunday morning opening words, which are echoed in some variation in more than 1000 UU congregations around the country and the world: Welcome, one and all. For we do truly welcome you, whatever spiritual path you are on, or are not on. We welcome you, whatever your ethnic, class, age, or genetic background. We welcome you, whatever your abilities, whatever your walk of life, and whomever you love. We require only that you manifest respect for one another, and for the planet that is our home.
A man and a woman have died this week, simply for being part of a spiritual community that dares to live that simple and profound welcome of radical hospitality, which is the essential core of all true religions. We are left with making sense of the senseless. We are left to try to find hope in our despair for a world in which human beings are killed by other human beings - in church while watching a children’s play, while swimming in a favorite UP swimming hole, in a greedy war initiated by the rich and powerful that is funded and fought with the money and the blood of common folk, and in countless other acts of targeted or random violence.
There is no making sense of the senseless. We must never abandon hope, however, for life without hope is life without the spirit of living. Today, let us rekindle our hope in the fire of our beloved community, which extends across the nation and around the world. Let us feel the interconnectedness of the tens and hundreds of thousands of Unitarian Universalists who, like us, have come together this morning to light a chalice, more aware than ever of who we are, and what we stand for.
Let us join together now in the singing of the best known hymn of Unitarian Universalism, which the people of the Knoxville UU congregation sang at their service of remembrance, Spirit of Life.
With the lighting of this candle, we honor all people everywhere, in all times and places, of all political or religious persuasions, who have given of their lives to stand for justice. Today, it is fitting to especially grieve and honor our UU brothers and sisters who have worked, sacrificed, and even died to safeguard the rights of others. Putting the recent violence into an historical context helps us understand that this violence reflects the human condition, which Unitarian Universalists have always sought to improve. This act reflects the violence that invariably accompanies social change, when change requires that individuals share the goods of social privilege, or lose their fear of the unknown “other.”
In Greek, the word “heresy” means “choice.” In the early days of Christianity, followers had the freedom to choose to believe that God was one entity instead of a trinity, which is Unitarianism, or that no one would be condemned to eternal hell, which is Universalism. When the Nicene Creed declared in 325AD that the Trinity was doctrine and salvation as the exclusive privilege of Christians, anyone who believed otherwise was persecuted and excommunicated. Thus began the long history in the western world of sacrifice for the heretic’s choice of freedom of thought and religion, and the concepts of Unitarianism and Universalism were thus born. Michael Servetus of Spain was burned at the stake in the 1500’s for refusing to deny his belief in a unified, single God….a unitarian God.
That early legacy led to generations of Unitarians and Universalists who stood for freedom of thought, which evolved into a deep commitment to social justice. When our nation sought independence from the mother country, Unitarians were there, including five signatories to the Declaration of Independence. When those who sought freedom and for African Americans through the abolishment of slavery, Unitarians and Universalists were among the leaders of the movement. When women and enlightened men sought the vote for women, when Jewish people were being slaughtered by the Nazis, Unitarians stood for justice. During the civil rights movement, Unitarians and Universalists were active participants. Now, in our time, in the fight for gay rights, Unitarian Universalists are once again out front and center. Whenever the dignity and worth or the rights of others are threatened, we are there; for standing on the side of justice and love is what we do best. To us, love is justice. Justice is love.
The death by burning of Michael Servetus in 325 AD caused a widespread outcry that contributed to a shift in Europe toward greater religious tolerance. May the outcry about the most recent killing of Unitarian Universalists resound across the land and around the world, and initiate another shift toward greater tolerance for freedom of thought and religion.
Reading of Names of UU’s who have Fought for the Rights of Others
Olympia Brown, Universalist, first woman fully ordained into the ministry of any denomination, late 1800’s
Paul Revere, John Adams, and many others: Unitarians and Universalists, American revolutionaries, 1700’s
Benjamin Rush, Universalist founder; Signer of Declaration of Independence and anti-slavery activist, 1700’s.
Margaret Fuller, Unitarian: Author, transcendentalist, and prophetic voice of profound influence on the early women’s movement; 1800’s.
Susan B. Anthony, Unitarian and Quaker, leader for women’s rights, 1800’s.
Martha and Waitstill Sharp, Unitarians; Among the few American individuals who were honored as "Righteous Among the Nations" by the state of Israel for their efforts to save Jewish refugees, and initiators of the Unitarian Universalist Social Service Committee; mid-1900’s.
Rachel Carson, Unitarian Universalist, foremother of environmental movement, 1960’s
John Haynes Holmes, Unitarian Universalist: minister, social activist, and a founder of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 1960’s.
James J. Reeb, Unitarian minister: member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, clubbed to death in Selma, Alabama during the civil rights movement, 1965.
Viola Liuzzo, Unitarian Universalist: civil rights activist murdered by white supremacists after her participation in the protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, 1965.
The Unitarian Universalists became the first major church "to approve religious blessings on homosexual unions; 1984.
The Unitarian Universalist Arlington Street church in Arlington: site of the first state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in the USA; May, 2004.
Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger; Unitarian Universalists: died in a hate crime against the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation as part of “the liberal movement,” July, 2008.
Moment of Silence
May we walk forward together, with courage, resolve, and joy in who we are, and be the change we wish to see in the world.